The Importance of Being a "Homekeeper"

I wanted to take a minute and talk about the verse that I chose for my blog. l tried to come up with a verse that meant a lot to me. I thought about it for a few days, and then the other day while I was doing my daily bible study I came across Proverbs 14:1 which I’ll repeat right here: “Every wise woman buildeth her house: but the foolish plucketh it down with her hands.” I really feel like this verse encompasses what my purpose is in life and really reveals what my main goal should be. 
As a stay-at-home-mom, I often feel like I am not making a difference. A lot of the jobs that I do are undone in a short while. If I finally get ahead on laundry it won’t be long before more dirty laundry is generated (especially with cloth diapers).  If I get the floors clean it is an invitation for dirt to be tracked in. When I spend a few hours preparing a nice meal (which is fairly rare since I usually go for quick and simple recipes) it is scarfed down within minutes with nothing but full bellies to show for it. Oh, and apparently a clean diaper is a lot more fun to dirty than one that is already wet! So I spend a lot of my time doing, and redoing, the same things. I sometimes feel like I am on a treadmill. Walking and walking, but not getting anywhere. 
It’s at these times that I have to sit back and reflect on what my purpose is in this life. It is easy to get caught up in our daily routines, but what is the main goal of Christians? To get to Heaven and to take as many people as we can with us when we go. It is such a simple goal in theory. That our whole lives boil down to a one sentence goal, but it really is true. In Titus 2:5 it says that women are to be “keepers at home.” Does that mean that God is concerned with whether or not all of my laundry is washed? Or that my floor is sparkling clean? No, it doesn’t. Now I’m not saying that keeping a clean and inviting home is not an important part of the job. Keeping a clean home is essential, and I believe that it is extremely important when it comes to creating a “safe haven” for your family to come home to. But it is just a small part of our jobs as wives and mothers. The inspired writer, Paul, did not say that the women are to be “housekeepers” he said we are to be “keepers at home” or as I like to refer to it “homekeepers.” 
My main goal is to build up my home upon the foundation of Christ. It is more important for my daughter to be taught the word of God, than it is to make sure all of her toys are picked up. It is more important for me to spend quality time with her and cultivate her desire for learning than it is for me to check my facebook notifications. If she sees that I put a clean house, errands, facebook, tv, or whatever else before I do bible study then she will grow up thinking that God is not important. If she is left with this conclusion, then I have ultimately failed as a mother. It is true that when she is grown she will have to make the decision to follow Christ and be a faithful child of God on her own, but I must do everything I can to ensure that we will spend eternity together. 
I said before that sometimes I feel like I am on a treadmill going nowhere, but you know what? Walking on the treadmill still gives results. They might not show as immediate as I would like, but eventually they will show all of the hard work that I have put in. Being a “homekeeper” is the same way, except the rewards of it are much greater in the end. 
         This song came on yesterday evening while I was listening to Pandora, and I felt like the first verse really said what I had been feeling. 

"Do Everything" - Steven Curtis Chapman

Taking Time to Settle in

      This was our first week in our new home. We arrived last Thursday and were greeted by probably more than half of the congregation. They helped us unload the truck very quickly and even stayed to help us put together some of our furniture so we would have somewhere to sleep that night. They stocked our pantry, fridge, and freezer with food. This was especially helpful because the nearest grocery store is 15 minutes away and anything more than that is about 30 minutes. We really had a wonderful welcome. Everyone here is so friendly and always willing to help. It’s not just the church members either, the townspeople are like that as well. It is like stepping back in time and visiting “Mayberry”...except Mayberry was bigger and had more businesses. Ames only has two gas stations and a post office. Speaking of the post office, our mail is not delivered here. We actually have to walk to the post office (which is right around the corner) and pick up our mail. They have a real nice park area that is fairly new. We haven’t had time to really check it out yet, but I am looking forward to doing so. I think Kynslee will really enjoy it. On the Saturday evening after we moved in, they had a soup and chili supper for the community. It was a fundraiser to build a sprinkler park across the street from the park. We were able to meet a lot of people in the community there. That’s another thing about this town, everyone seems to be involved in community events. It is such change coming from Memphis. Not just because of the obvious size difference but because everyone is so courteous and friendly. It is very refreshing. 

Kynslee turned 9 months this week!! I cannot believe it! She will be 1 year old in just a few short months! Where did the time go? She, like the rest of us, is still trying to get adjusted. I really can’t blame her though. All of her surroundings and people that she is used to being around have changed and she doesn’t even understand why. The first few days after we moved into the house she would scream every time me or Don would leave the room. She is also in the process of cutting two more teeth (on the top) so that is adding to her frustration. 

We love the congregation here at Ames. We are really excited about settling in here and getting to know everyone better. The Tuesday after we moved, Don went door knocking down our street just to introduce himself to our neighbors. I was so surprised when he came home and said he had a bible study set up! I am really excited that he was able to get a bible study so  quickly and I am praying that she will see the truth. 

A week after we moved and we have just about gotten unpacked. We have most of the boxes unpacked and even have pictures up on the walls, so it is starting to feel a little more familiar. I’ll be glad when we feel settled and more like this is our home. I truly think that we will really love it here, it is just going to take some time. 

4 Weeks Later and I'm Still Trying to Get it All Together

Kynslee is 4 weeks old today! I cannot believe it!! We stay so busy that time has just flown by. She is doing very well. I weighed her yesterday on our scale at home (don't know how accurate it is) and she is up to 8lbs. 3 oz. which is exactly a pound more than when she was born! She is still really small and most of her outfits are still too big, but progress is progress. Besides, I don't want her to grow up any faster than she has to. The hardest thing about having a newborn (or maybe it's just being a first-time mom) is trying to not only take care of a baby, but still find time to cook, clean, run errands, etc. It's just within the last few days that I feel like I am getting the hang of getting things done while she sleeps during the day. The only problem with this is that it means that I don't get to nap when she does, which is hard after some nights when she is up several times but you do what you have to do. Running errands with a baby is a lot of work and strategic planning. All through pregnancy you take it easy and can't lift anything real heavy, and then...BAM! After you have the baby you are expected to lug around the baby in the carseat. Putting it in and out of the car, lifting it up into the grocery carts, and if you're lucky enough as we are lugging it up the stairs to your apartment along with all the groceries. There's also the whole strategically planning your outing in between feedings or else you'll be once again stranded in the car feeding a screaming baby. It's funny how much experience you gain in such short time after you have a child! Not to mention all of the hilarious stories you can tell to all your friends. Like the time we had a blowout diaper outside Dairy Queen on the way home from a weekend trip and how poop got all over me, her, and the car seat! Or the time when I actually took the time to shave before my postpartum checkup, but somehow only remembered to shave one of my legs! Life as a new mommy is never dull and always busy. Kynslee has been having a lot of tummy trouble lately. I bought some gas drops yesterday, and have been giving them to here at every feeding and she seems to be doing some better. I can still tell there are times when it hurts her, but she doesn't all of the sudden burst out in an ear-piercing scream until it comes out one end or the other anymore so that's improvement. I am going to cut milk from my diet and see if that helps. I read that milk is one of the most popular things for causing upset stomachs. Something about their stomach not being able to break down the enzymes in the milk. So we shall see if that works. Like I said I was able to get some cleaning done today, and I actually got to bake some banana bread this afternoon while she napped. I got the recipe from Pinterest . I wanted something sweet, and I just happened to have some nearly rotten bananas so I decided to try it. It was delicious! It didn't taste like traditional banana bread, but it also wasn't made like banana bread lol! I liked it because it was quick and easy and I didn't have to throw out my rotten bananas. Don thought it was wonderful. He said anything that had chocolate chips and pecans had to be good. I also made Teriyaki Chicken for supper tonight. It was a meal from my freezer stash. I am so glad that I took the time to make those meals before I had Kynslee. This is the third night in a row that we have eaten something from the freezer and they have all been great. It really helps me out a lot to have all or a majority of the meal already prepared and just have to heat it up and fix a veggie or two to go with it. It's almost as easy as going out to eat.

        So I am doing as well as I thought I would about writing regularly, but I did just have a baby so I at least I have that excuse. 

Kynslee Caitlin was born on April 25th at 3:44am and weighed 7lbs 3oz and was 20 1/4" long. It was a hard labor because she would not cooperate, but (now that it's been two weeks and I am starting to not hurt as badly) she was definitely worth all the pain and someday (in the somewhat distant future) may consider doing it all again. 

        My doctor decided it was best to induce me at 39 weeks because Kynslee was, what doctors call, "sunny side up" (which just means that the baby is face up) and she didn't want her to gain any more weight and risk her being too big and having to do a c-section (she said that when a baby presents face up there is already a 50% chance of a c-section). In the beginning I didn't want to be induced, but at 39 weeks pregnant I really didn't care if it meant I didn't have to be pregnant anymore and I could meet my sweet girl. I checked in the hospital at 7am on Tuesday morning, and by 8am I was hooked up to just about everything in the world and the Pitocin was started. They increased the Pitocin every 30 minutes, but at 11am they had to turn the it off because Kynslee's heartbeat kept dropping every time I had a contraction. I continued to labor on my own, but the contractions got further and further apart. At 1pm my doctor came in and checked me and I was only at 3cm, (I had started at 2cm) so she went ahead and broke my water to try and help things along. On a side note anytime they checked me, and when she broke my water, it hurt SO bad because Kynslee was so high it felt like they had to stick their whole arm up there! My doctor, also, wanted to try to turn the Pitocin on again at a slow rate and see if Kynslee would tolerate that. 

After my doctor broke my water my contractions started coming 1-3 minutes apart and would would measure from 80-110 in intensity on the contraction monitor (the scale on the monitor only went to 100). Don and my mom thought it was a fun game to tell me how high the number would go with each contraction, and cheered when I broke 100 (yes, they are a bit sadistic). Even though the pain was the worst I've ever felt in my life, I wanted to hold off on the epidural as long as I could. I had read that the earlier you get an epidural, the more likely it is to slow your labor down and since my labor wasn't progressing very fast anyway I didn't want to take any chances. My goal was to make it to 5cm before getting the epidural. At 5pm, after 4 hours of the worst contractions, I finally relented and asked for the epidural. Once I got the epidural it was amazing! I felt so relaxed and I couldn't feel a thing! Don and my mom had to tell me when I was having a contraction, but they weren't near as excited about it now that I couldn't feel them (like I said sadistic). The nurse checked me right after I got the epidural and I was at 5cm. I had made my goal!! About an hour later though they had to stop the Pitocin because her heart rate was dropping again. They put me on oxygen and made me lay on my left side. Once the Pitocin was turned off my contractions spaced out to 3-5 minutes apart and decreased in intensity to 70-80. 

My doctor came in at 7pm and checked me again, but I was still at 7cm and Kynslee had not dropped at all. She said that she would come back at 10pm, and if I haven't made any progress I will have to have a c-section. She put an internal heart rate monitor on Kynslee for a more accurate reading. I am completely exhausted at this point (I had been up since 4am because I couldn't sleep due to nerves) and scared and feel really defeated at the prospect of a c-section. I felt like my body was working against me, and not progressing like it should have naturally done. It was a long 3 hours, but when my doctor checked me again at 10pm, I was 7cm. She said that as long as I was making some progress she would let me go as long as she could to avoid a c-section. She said she would come back at 1am and check again. At some point between then and when she came back, I begin to shake uncontrollably. It was kind of scary at first, because I felt like I had no control over my own body. We asked the nurse about it, and she said that it was a normal side effect of the epidural. 

At 12am I started to feel some pressure. At first I tried to ignore it because I didn’t  think I could possibly be progressed enough to be ready to start pushing. The pressure increased over the next 45 minutes until I finally told my mom to get the nurse because I couldn’t ignore it anymore. The nurse came in and checked me and she didn’t tell me if I had dilated anymore, but she said that if I felt the need to start pushing we could. I pushed for 3 sets of 10 seconds with each contraction for 3 hours until she was born. She still had not dropped, so I had to really push to get her under my pelvic bone. The poor child looked horrible when she was born. Thankfully they had kind of cleaned her up, and put a hat on before I saw her, otherwise I would have been pretty freaked out! Later when I was going through the pictures, I saw what she really looked like and it was pretty awful! She looked like the Bride of Frankenstein! Her head was not only cone shaped, she had  a ridge in the middle of her head and two big gashes (one from the internal monitor and one from the birth itself). 

Like I said before, now that she’s here I can honestly say that it was all totally worth it, but if any of my subsequent children are face up I think I may just go ahead with the c-section. Thinking back, and seeing what her head looked like after birth, it scares me as to what could have happened. I am very grateful and know that I am truly blessed to have had a safe delivery and a healthy baby.

Me after they put me on oxygen and I had the epidural (notice I'm smiling lol)

Don was such a great support through the whole thing. 

Getting me anything I needed, and giving me massages :)

Our first family picture!!

Kynslee's hospital photo

So I am starting this blog because I am terrible at calling people letting them know how things are going. I figure this way friends and family can keep up with what is going on in our lives. With a baby due any day I probably won't get to update this as often as I should, but if I can it will be a great way to keep you up to date with her as well. I hope that this will be a good experience and provide a way to look back and see our family life day to day.